These days I don't have too many pictures of myself. It's a natural progression, I suppose; my kids are the cute, precocious ones now, the center of my and Alfie's world. We don't change much, so there isn't the urgency to capture our moments as much as theirs. Truthfully, if I were a bit more confident about my looks and figure, I'd probably be strutting my stuff in front of the camera more than I do. As it is, most of the recent photos of me are taken with kids:

But once in a while, I let loose and say, to hell with self-consciousness. Today is my day. I want a portrait of me.

And here are the babies now. Haven't they grown? The leaves don't look so heart-shaped anymore, and the traps are starting to look mean and scary-ass hungry. At this point, I'm not sure what to do with them... should I catch them some flies? Or let them do it on their own (it's not like our house is infested by insects...)? I feel like a mother of an adolescent.

Today I grabbed my new macro lens and tried my hand at snapping some portraits of Alfie and the boys out on the playground. I experimented with various settings and ended up taking 84 photos in about an hour.

Look at what I got for my birthday! No, not these yummy Filipino snacks from my childhood days (although this is a rare treat, since my mother just arrived from Manila and brought them with her). I'm talking about the lens I used to take the photo.

Behold my new macro lens, the one I've wanted since I first found out what a macro lens is. It's not a high-end lens by any means, but I've read some good reviews and I'm convinced it's a good macro lens for a beginner like me. I'm looking forward to taking lots of closeups of food, babies, flowers and the like. With a bit of practice and luck, hopefully someday the Filipino snack photos I take will look more like these.

With gas being so expensive these days, I thought I'd start keeping more careful track of how far I drive. The answer shocked me: I drove over 200 miles last week! Mind you, I'm a stay-at-home parent, so how in hell did I rack up so many miles? Here's how:

God bless grandmothers! Especially grandmothers who knit and sew. When our kids were born, Alfie's mother got her knitting needles busy; the resulting baby blankets and sweaters were the envy of all my friends.

Now The Pea has these American Girl dolls, and like the great grandmother (and technically, she is the dolls' great-grandmother) that she is, she has knitted some bedding for them. The new blankets go perfectly with the bunk bed that Alfie made for her out of the scrap wood lying around the garage. I think the whole ensemble is as cute as anything you could get from a store! The dolls certainly like it, and so does The Pea.

3Po and CleanBoy finished off their spring tap/ballet class with a special tap performance set to "Take a Little One Step" from the musical No, No Nanette. The class actually danced it without any coaching from the teacher. Also, the mirror was behind them, so they couldn't copy any of their classmates. At least, not without turning their heads and looking around, which is what most of them did. Which made it even cuter.

Like so many people, cancer has affected the lives of people I love. There is a strong history of cancer running on my dad's side; both his mother and father, my late grandparents, had it. We've lost them, and some of their brothers and sisters, my great-uncles and great-aunts, to cancer. My aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer about a decade ago, and my father was diagnosed with prostate cancer a couple of years ago. Both of them underwent successful treatment and are in remission. I have some wonderful friends who have had cancer.

I can't cure their cancer or ease their pain. But I can show my support. To anyone who is fighting this disease:You are amazing. You are beautiful. Your courage is an inspiration to me.

So today I am painting my blog yellow. And I am joining the San Jose Livestrong Challenge on July 13. I invite everyone to lace up their shoes and join as well. For today only, if you sign up to bike or run at any of the LiveStrong Challenges around the country, you'll get 50% off the registration fee. Just use the discount code LSDAY08 when you register online.

If running / walking/ biking is not your thing, you can still help by donating $5 to the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Just go to my Livestrong webpage and use the secure online donation form. Or donate via the main LiveStrong Foundation donation page. I don't care. Every little bit helps the foundation provide support to patients and research programs. These people are fighting and they need all the help they can get.

I've been meaning to check out the annual Stanford Powwow ever since I first arrived here in 1994, but somehow I never got around to it. I finally decided that 2008 would be Powwow Year. Since today is Mother's Day and I got to call the shots, I dragged Alfie and the kids along with me. I knew they'd enjoy all the costumes and dancing and crafts, and I wasn't wrong.

I didn't know whether it would be tacky to ask the participants to pose for pictures with us (after all, they're not Disney mascots) but everyone seemed to be doing it, so I set aside my reservations (no pun intended) and began clicking away.

Since this week's PhotoHunt's theme is basically, anything, I thought I'd pick up from a post I did last week on our Venus Flytraps. They were so much smaller just 9 days ago; just look at them now! They're actually starting to look like Venus Flytraps. The inside of the the bigger trap is starting to turn pink, and I swear the trap was closed just a couple of days ago. Maybe our baby is starting on solid food?

Soup: Describe the flooring in your home. Do you have carpet, hardwood, vinyl, a mix?We have hardwood in every room of the house except the bathroom (tiles) and the kids' bedroom (carpet).

Salad: Write a sentence with only 5 words, but all of the words have to start with the first letter of your first name.Arthur Andersen ate Annie's apples.

Main Course: Do you know anyone whose life has been touched by adoption?A good friend of mine recently adopted a 2-year-old from India. They are one big, happy family -- mom, dad, 2 big sisters, and their beautiful new baby sister.

The Pea asked me last night what I wanted for Mother's Day. I told her I would be happy with some of her lovely artwork or a nice card. No, besides a card! , she insisted. Then how about something homemade, like the lovely beads that your brothers made for me at preschool? No, something else!

My next thought was to say, I want a day to window shop all by myself. But I didn't really want to tell The Pea that what I want most is a day without her. And besides, if I spent Mother's Day window shopping, I'd probably end up eating some junky treat from the mall food court.

So I told her I'd love to get a spa manicure. And sweet girl that she is, even though her life savings amounts to just $40, her face lit up and she said, "OK mommy, I'll use my own money to pay for a manicure for you!".

I tell you, spending Mother's Day with the Pea and her brothers beats window shopping any day.

(but for my real wish list -- take note, Alfie!! -- click here)------------------Parent Bloggers has teamed up with Johnson’s to for this Mother’s Day Blog Blast to promote their new charitable giving site, Johnson’s Baby Cause, to give help care for mothers and children - not just on Mother’s Day, but every day of the year. What's your wish?

Alfie loooooves motorcycles. I never really thought about motorcycles being works of art before I met him, but the artistry in some of the bikes features in this year's Legend of the Motorcycle show is undeniable.

We've got lots of babies this spring... baby plants, that is. I've got a new windowsill herb garden, Alfie has a couple of tomato plants out back, and the kids have pansies, lavender, tomatoes, wildflowers and herbs. Oh, and these little darlings.

At the time, they were just tiny shoots, like a small leaf poking out of the ground. I thought they'd die for sure. For the first 3 weeks we didn't even water them with distilled water like we were supposed to (apparently they are very sensitive to the chlorine and other minerals in regular tap water). I kept "forgetting" to buy the water. But in spite of it all, they survived, and continue to thrive.

I have to admit, I now find them quite fascinating. They're not quite big enough to swallow flies yet, but their traps are growing quite nicely, and you can already see the little hairs on them. And who would have guessed that they have heart-shaped leaves?

Now they get lots of sunshine, water (yes, distilled water at last) and love. And if they do end up swallowing up all the flies and mosquitoes around the house, even I will fall in love with them.

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About Me

Bonggamom is a a work-at-home parent to a daughter and twin sons. She is balances freelance writing, social media management, and parenting, constantly looking for new ways to entertain her kids while doing as little housework as possible.